Other finalists in the RASC-AL Forum include teams from the
University of Maryland, the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Virginia
Tech, Drexel, West Virginia University, and the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The competition stresses synergistic applications of NASA’s
planned current missions and the combination of innovative technologies to
support crewed and robotic space exploration.

According to the
National Institute of Aerospace:

Revolutionary
Aerospace Systems Concepts - Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) is a student design
competition that is sponsored by NASA and managed by the National Institute of
Aerospace. RASC-AL was formed to provide university-level engineering
students with the opportunity to design human scale architecture
concepts based on NASA engineering challenges as well as offer NASA access
to new research and design projects by students.

RASC-AL is
open to undergraduate and graduate university-level students studying fields
with applications to human space exploration (i.e., aerospace, bio-medical,
electrical, and mechanical engineering; and life, physical, and computer
sciences). RASC-AL projects allow students to incorporate their
coursework into real aerospace design concepts and work together in a team
environment. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

Through RASC-AL,
student teams and their faculty advisors will work to develop mission
architectures to employ innovative solutions in response to one of three
themes: Enabling
Long Duration Missions through Holistic Habitat Design, Human
Assisted Sample Return, and Tele-operated
Robot.